The present invention is in the field of manufacturing bearing rings by fracturing the wall of the ring to form separate parts. For certain bearing locations, ordinary antifriction bearings may not be used, in spite of their advantages, because these bearing locations are of difficult access and the undivided bearing rings may not be placed upon the shaft or mounted into the housing.
It is already known to use antifriction bearings with divided bearing rings in such cases. In so doing, either the bearing rings are manufactured and processed from the beginning as divided rings, or the bearing rings are processed to the finished state as closed rings and are then divided by means of rupturing.
In known procedures for manufacturing divided antifriction-bearing rings by means of splitting or fracturing, the partition line is generally arranged so as to run parallel to the axis of the bearing. This has a disadvantage that the two ring parts must be prevented by special means from shifting in relation to one another in an axial direction, when mounted.
This disadvantage may be avoided by shaping the partition line in the form of an arrow, whereby the parts that engage one another are mutually fixed in an axial direction, in a positive manner. A procedure for manufacturing such arrow-shaped partition lines is already known, wherein the bearing ring is provided with V-shaped slots on opposing front sides; each notch points with its respective apex or base towards a hole that is located in the middle of the bearing ring and is shifted in relation to the V-shaped slots in a circumferential direction. Furthermore, the front or end surfaces are provided with supporting surfaces, in a manner such that the bearing ring can be supported against forces in the direction of the partition lines. For splitting purposes, the bearing ring is placed with one of its end or front side surfaces on the support and is subjected to a wedge force directed obliquely against the opposite end surface of the bearing ring, by means of a pressure wedge or breaking device, which features a wedge angle that is greater than the slot. In this fashion, a partition line widens down to the hole. The ring is now turned and the other supporting surface is placed on the support, and the ring is split to its finished form by the wedge force that is applied (DE-OS 2 723 928).
In these known procedures considerable expense must be incurred. In addition to the slanted V-shaped slots, supporting surfaces that are also slanted must be provided. Due to the many slanted slots and supporting surfaces, the front sides of the bearing rings are shaped in an extremely irregular form, and furthermore the ratio of the axial width of the bearing ring in relation to the load-carrying surface, between the rolling elements and the bearing ring, is very large. The space that may be used for bearing capacity is thus actually extremely small. Furthermore, the pressure wedge or breaking device must be shaped in wedge form and must feature a wedge angle that is greater than the V-shaped slots.
It is the objective of the present invention to create a procedure of the type discussed above, which will be less expensive and which can function without special supporting surfaces that are machined into the front sides or ends of the bearing rings. In other words, this invention provides a procedure which yields bearing rings whose widths are at an optimum in relation to the load-carrying length. This objective is accomplished by means of the procedural steps wherein a bearing ring with a single partition line is produced, or a bearing ring divided into two separate parts is produced. The procedure according to the invention shall be described in greater detail on the basis of the preferred embodiment illustrated in the attached drawings.